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Did something stupid yesterday


Norm02

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I have thousands of hours of inboard driving experience. I was an AWSA Tournament Driver in the 90's before "Perfect Pass" was widely used and driving was a lot harder. It was a challenge to hold speed with a mechanical throttle on a carbureted engine, and hope you were within tolerance at the exit gate when pulling a big guy at 38 off.  It's been a while, but I've forgotten the Tee plug a few times over the years,  but the worst, most embarrassing boat ramp incident happened to me just last year.... It is amazing how hard it is to get the darn boat off the trailer with one transom strap still attached!! LOL!  My "helper" released the ratchet but left the strap attached. Errr! I disconnected the strap on the port side while my "helper" was taking care of the starboard side. I didn't verify the it was done correctly. I just got in the drivers seat feeling elated that someone other than me was on trailer backing duty that day. That happy feeling quickly faded when I started backing off the trailer and the transom strap had just enough slack in it to allow the boat float up and get stuck sideways. Everything ended fine with no damage (other than my ego) I was able to straighten it out by creative use of dock lines and backing the trailer in deepe. I can guarantee that will never happen again on my watch!

BTW... A trick I use to remember the T plug on my VLX is I store the plug in the cup holder by the drivers helm and I attach it to the kill switch cord. This way, if I forget to put the plug in,  the boat will not start and there is no place to set the beverage I usually have with me because that pesky darn drain plug is in the way and it's attached to the safety cord needs plugged in.  The trick I use on my Response to remember the plug is I attach it to the boat key chain as soon as I remove it.  With It being '98 model there is no keyless ignition like the new boats, so a big brass T plug hanging from the keychain right by your knee when sitting in the drivers seat is hard to miss.

Edited by jbcanski2
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Routine...routine...routine...I think that is the key.  Get into one and don't change.  I have told this story before I know but the first year I had my boat back in 2006.....had been a GREAT summer.  I put over 100 hours on that first season and was heading to the lake to celebrate my birthday with some friends.   Beautiful early fall weather , not a cloud in the sky.  I was towing to the lake to meet my girlfriend and a couple other folks.  I needed to stop for fuel and I had always filled on the port side up to that point. That day , however no pumps were open on that side and being in a rush I pulled in to fill on starboard side.  Not a big deal...I fill up and head out.  After 45 min haul to the lake I get there a little early before guests and get out to start prepping boat.  As I am walking around admiring my new pride and joy and patting myself on the back for not having put a single scratch on her all summer....I notice something looks funny towards rear starboard side.  Holy crap I forgot to put gas cap back on!  And for 45 minutes it beat the snot out of the side of by boat. :(  I was sick...happy birthday lol.  Friends arrived and we still had a great time but that snafu was in the back of my mind all day.  Not a big deal....got the damage fixed and can't even see where it was but I have never forgotten that lesson and still walk around boat after fueling to this day.....checking caps and feeling bearings for heat etc.     Since then I have tried to back off with tow straps on...left wakeboard in racks with bungie off and lost it on way back to dock somehow.....came in too crooked and hit prop on trailer prop guard blah blah blah.  Mistakes will happen I guess but having a routine and trying to stick to it will go a long ways.  I find its usually when I get in a hurry being impatient that I cause myself the most grief.

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4 hours ago, jbcanski2 said:

...but the worst, most embarrassing boat ramp incident happened to me just last year.... It is amazing how hard it is to get the darn boat off the trailer with one transom strap still attached!! LOL!  My "helper" released the ratchet but left the strap attached. Errr! I disconnected the strap on the port side while my "helper" was taking care of the starboard side. I didn't verify the it was done correctly.

 

3 hours ago, DUKENO1 said:

Routine...routine...routine...I think that is the key.  Get into one and don't change.

This is why I politely refuse to let anyone else help me with my "walk around."  I typically try to be the first of the group at the lake so they have to come to the dock to meet me, but if they are there early or came with me I let them load up their stuff and then send them to the dock while a trusted driver backs me in; I avoid having anyone on the boat when launching...it's unnecessary and just tends to cause problems.

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Tired after long day of riding I "speed glossed" half my boat with vinyl conditioner....all of the boat candy products come in black bottles and I don't usually have vinyl conditioner in the truck.  

  • Like 2
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On 7/13/2018 at 11:28 AM, Norsman said:

I bought some carpet bunk spray to ease winching it on for next time, but I don't want it to slide off the trailer when launching it either ( I keep the winch strap on and locked).

Whats the deal with Malibu trailers and no safety straps anyway?

Ask my dealer the same thing last Friday when I picked up my new 18 LSV. Wheres the transom straps? "These boats are heavy they arn't going anywhere." Had to buy my own. They will be here this week, Fulton bolt on ratchet straps on the way. Don't get much for over $100,000 these days. Even though most of the owners manual is dedicated to safe operations of your boat and trailer, they still ship them not tied down. I'm sure glad these 40,000 lb coils of steel I see shipped on trailers are strapped down. They are a lot heavier than these boats, they shouldn't go anywhere! STUPID.

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2 hours ago, dalt1 said:

Ask my dealer the same thing last Friday when I picked up my new 18 LSV. Wheres the transom straps? "These boats are heavy they arn't going anywhere." Had to buy my own. They will be here this week, Fulton bolt on ratchet straps on the way. Don't get much for over $100,000 these days. Even though most of the owners manual is dedicated to safe operations of your boat and trailer, they still ship them not tied down. I'm sure glad these 40,000 lb coils of steel I see shipped on trailers are strapped down. They are a lot heavier than these boats, they shouldn't go anywhere! STUPID.

p=mv^2

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3 hours ago, UWSkier said:

p=mv^2

My thoughts exactly. I drove up on a car wreck 20 years ago and one of the vehicles was towing a decent size I/O boat. The boat had come off the trailer and laying on its side near the truck with the winch still attached to the bow eye. However, the winch was no longer attached to the trailer. It was a sobering thing to see. 

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6 hours ago, dalt1 said:

Ask my dealer the same thing last Friday when I picked up my new 18 LSV. Wheres the transom straps? "These boats are heavy they arn't going anywhere." Had to buy my own. They will be here this week, Fulton bolt on ratchet straps on the way. Don't get much for over $100,000 these days. Even though most of the owners manual is dedicated to safe operations of your boat and trailer, they still ship them not tied down. I'm sure glad these 40,000 lb coils of steel I see shipped on trailers are strapped down. They are a lot heavier than these boats, they shouldn't go anywhere! STUPID.

This is an inexpensive option for some reason on the order sheet, which makes no sense to not be standard, but pretty much every dealer selects this automatically. Your dealer must’ve had a new guy doing the orders or something slipped through the cracks there to not have transom straps on even a stock boat.

If not, I’d be double checking the oil level when they change the oil too...

Edited by NWBU
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My dealer adds them once they get the boat.  Presumably it is cheaper for them than checking the box from Malibu.  

For anyone buying a new boat, I can’t believe any good dealer wouldn’t add these as part of the deal, even if it wasn’t on a build sheet.  

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1 minute ago, hethj7 said:

My dealer adds them once they get the boat.  Presumably it is cheaper for them than checking the box from Malibu.  

For anyone buying a new boat, I can’t believe any good dealer wouldn’t add these as part of the deal, even if it wasn’t on a build sheet.  

Good point, I wasn’t thinking about some dealers going aftermarket for things like that, and same for batteries.

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15 hours ago, hethj7 said:

My dealer adds them once they get the boat.  Presumably it is cheaper for them than checking the box from Malibu.  

For anyone buying a new boat, I can’t believe any good dealer wouldn’t add these as part of the deal, even if it wasn’t on a build sheet.  

Well I tried but just got the "these boats are not going anywhere" reply. Picked my new 18 LSV a week ago. Ordered Fulton ratchets and will be here Wednesday.

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On July 14, 2018 at 2:36 PM, formulaben said:

 

This is why I politely refuse to let anyone else help me with my "walk around."  I typically try to be the first of the group at the lake so they have to come to the dock to meet me, but if they are there early or came with me I let them load up their stuff and then send them to the dock while a trusted driver backs me in; I avoid having anyone on the boat when launching...it's unnecessary and just tends to cause problems.

I learned this lesson the hard way.  I let a friend hook my trailer up to my bosses truck I had borrowed to take the boat to Dale Hollow.  Get about 10 miles down the road and hit a bump going across a bridge and hear the trailer tongue hit the road.  Worst part was having to slow down and let the boat run into my bosses truck.  Luckily no one was hurt (and I kept my job), but I never never never never let someone else hook my trailer up.

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my most memorable stupid moment happened last year, backing the boat into the garage.  my friend and i had only been renting the garage for a season at that point, so it was a routine that i hadn't perfected yet.  my routine is to get to the garage, fold the tower, lay everything out to dry, and take the mirror off of the windshield.  this particular evening, it was late and i was tired so i forgot about the mirror--i usually give the boat a once-over to make sure nothing is higher than the windshield, which fits under the open door by just a couple inches.  i get back in the truck and start backing the boat in, watching the garage door for clearance like usual.  of course i can't see the driver's side of the boat from the driver's side of the truck, but as the boat windshield is getting closer to the garage door i notice the door move up just slightly.  oh well, i must not have opened it fully, no big deal.  i back in a couple more inches and hear a SMASH!, as the windshield-mounted mirror rotates back and shatters the driver's window.  i was finding glass in random places for the rest of that season!

i now take the mirror off as soon as i'm on the trailer :biggrin:

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At least when 'we' do something stupid with our boats / cars / toys we know exactly what we did, when doing it to or with GF / wife we may will never know ...

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On ‎6‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 10:15 AM, Norm02 said:

So after I put the boat back on the trailer and wiped it down, I noticed that it wasn’t on there straight so I decided to put it back in the water to straighten it up.  So I backed it down the ramp until the rear tires were wet and then jumped out of the truck and gently eased it off the winch.

Got back in the truck and proceed to back it all the way in like I normally do until the boat starts to slightly float.  Well, I quickly realized that I forget to lock the winch so the boat started to float away which almost gave me a heart attack even though it was still connected to the winch strap.

Why did this scare me so badly you ask?  At the exact time that I realized that I forgot to lock out the winch I also realized that I FORGOT TO PUT THE MIDDLE PLUG BACK IN IT!!!  So I reeled it back on to the trailer faster than you could imagine (thankfully on the trailer straight) and quickly pulled it back up the ramp.  

I’ve been boating most of my life and I can’t believe that I made that error.  The good news is that it didn’t seem to hurt anything (the carpet by engine block wasn’t even wet) and I can promise you that I’ll never do that again.  The good news is that bilge area must have gotten a good cleaning since there was a fair amount of crud mixed in the water that drained out. 

Moral of the story is never get complacent and always remember the status of the plug!  😳🙄

I am a "wannabe" Malibu owner, but I can easily top that. After reminding myself three times to take the cleaning rag out of my Mercruiser intake, I left it in there. After 15 seconds of running time, the rag got sucked into the #2 cylinder and got jammed under the intake and exhaust valves. This required removing the cylinder head to get the rag fragments out. Moral of this story: Always use paper towels.:)

 

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I was grinding out a casting imperfection inside of my Mercruiser intake that was right behind the throttle valve and was causing an irritating "whistling" sound that was driving me insane. I was trying to keep shavings from getting into the intake ports. I reminded myself at least THREE times to remove that damn rag and still left it in there.

Edited by shiftman
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For my current boat the t-plug lives in a cup holder.  Our sign that it's out is the keys are in the glove box.  On previous boats where we had a kill switch, our signal that the plug was out was we would loop the kill switch lanyard over the throttle.

My wife knows enough to be slow out of the car with the kids at the launch while I prep it for launch.  Each time its hop in put the t-plug in the center, flip on the blower, and pull the keys out of glove box.  Then she loads up with the kids, and while they get life jackets on, I toss the rear plug in and pull transom straps, and then it's hers for launch and retrieval. 

I've forgotten the rear plug one time while someone chatted with my at the ramp.  Luckily, we were out to just take an hour or so of quick sets, so were running most of the time.  I found the plug out when we loaded - was hardly any water in from the constant draining during running.

I did try to back into the garage with a tower up one time - figured it out when I started creasing the gutter - dodged a bullet on that one.

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People take out the back plug? Why?  Or is is this a V-drive thing?

T-plug always get put in at home before the boat leaves for water. Walk around is done there in case anything needs to be dealt with.

Wisconsin law, have to have trailer straps on. Be surprised how many don't. Bolt-ons should be a requirement on all boat trailers. Doesn't add much cost, but sure can make an accident not as bad.

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42 minutes ago, footndale said:

People take out the back plug? Why?  Or is is this a V-drive thing?

For those of us who tow into California, the Ag inspectors at the state border want to see the rear plug removed and will wave you through if it's out.  If it's in, they're gonna get all up in your business and want to climb around the boat with a flashlight.  So our practice is to pull the rear plug at the ramp while wiping down (do it when we ratchet the trailer straps down) and install when arriving at the lake (when unhooking trailer straps).  When off the water the plug and wrench get tucked in a cup holder on the side of the boat so it's always in the same place when we arrive.

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On 7/14/2018 at 3:44 PM, vanamp said:

Tired after long day of riding I "speed glossed" half my boat with vinyl conditioner....all of the boat candy products come in black bottles and I don't usually have vinyl conditioner in the truck.  

I bet that looked grimy lol

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1 hour ago, footndale said:

People take out the back plug? Why?  Or is is this a V-drive thing?

T-plug always get put in at home before the boat leaves for water. Walk around is done there in case anything needs to be dealt with.

Wisconsin law, have to have trailer straps on. Be surprised how many don't. Bolt-ons should be a requirement on all boat trailers. Doesn't add much cost, but sure can make an accident not as bad.

State law in MN to have all plugs removed.  We often have inspectors at launches we use, and they'll tag you if you pull up with plugs (any of them) in.  I even verified with an inspector that just having the center plug out isn't enough.....  That being said, I'll pop them in at the house if I'm going to the ramp a few blocks away where there's never any inspections or enforcement present.

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